Sometimes I wonder if I’m too critical towards shounen publications. I mean, they are intended for young boys, so perhaps I shouldn’t even be reading these things… Well, if that thought had ever crossed my mind I’d be doing something productive like finding a job. Here’s my ranking on various monthly magazines targeted toward teenage boys.

The Worst Monthly Shounen Magazines:

Monthly Shounen Champion (Akita Shoten)Series of Note:Asu no Yoichi, WORST, Ayu Mayu, No Bra!
This magazine in my opinion is the worst –no pun intended– since it’s all about ugly brawny teenagers kicking each other’s ass. Not to mention it has that Ayu Mayu crap, which is the worst –ditto– shit I’ve read in a long long time.

Monthly Shounen Sunday (Shogakukan)Series of Note:The!! Beach Stars, Ah! Azumanga Daioh
This magazine sucks just from the simple fact that I have yet to pick up a single issue. Not to mention the lineup sounds awfully fishy… Granted, I might want to read Beach Stars. Oh wait, I already have. In another magazine.

Monthly Shounen Jump (Shueisha)Series of Note:Rosario and Vampire, Tegami Bachi, Beet the Vandel Buster, Claymore, Kuro HimeThe only problem with this magazine isn’t in the quantity of reading material. Oh no, definitely it lies in its “quality” series. So much quality, that I make sure to take it with me to the bathroom in the unlikely event that I run out of toilet paper. I used to have smooth bowel movements before I picked one of these up.

Monthly Shounen Rival (Kodansha)Series of Note: Ookami Kakushi, Love Plus Manaka Days
The only unique thing about this magazine is that it has yet to come out with anything worth reading. It’s still young though, so perhaps it’s premature for me to say that. In any case, I don’t know what they were thinking when they came up with this one; but I assume they figured all of its series would have a strong element of rivalry (which is one of the three most basic elements of shounen manga), and somehow ended up with something completely different… Either way, into the shitcan for you.

Monthly Shounen Sirius (Kodansha)Series of Note:Ronri Shoujo, Yozakura Shijuusou, Dekisokonai no Monogatari, Rappi Rangai
Another half-assed idea where Kodansha decided to start up a new magazine, and kind of lost sight of their original intentions. To this day, this magazine still does not know what target demographic it is aiming for, let alone understand what kind of magazine it is trying to be. Fortunately, its strong line-up of gifted illustrators keeps its alive. Hopefully they’ll manage to keep this one running long enough for Katana Raizou to deflower one of his ninjas.

Monthly Shounen Magazine (Kodansha)Series of Note:Pumpkin Scissors, capeta, DEAR BOYS
It’s… it’s… so boring! I think I fell asleep three times just trying to finish one chapter from this magazine. Where’s all that wonderful fan service you’d expect from a normal monthly magazine? I’m going to bed on this one.

Comic REX (Ichijinsha)Series of Note: Kannagi, Soul Gadget Radiant, KonoKoKokonoKo, Shirasuna MuraLast I checked, this was targeted towards teenage boys. Though I believe the majority of its readers are post adolescent NEETs and the like. Whatever. I used to have high hopes for this magazine, before I grew up.

Dragon Age (Fujimishobo)Series of Note:Otaku no Musume-san, Maken-Ki!, Omamori Himari, ZeroIn, Kamisen, Mei no Naisho, Kamen no Maid Guy, Jinki: Extend, Kore wa Zombie Desuka?Where can I even start with this one? From the very start, it never tried to be a decent magazine. All it offered was cleavage, loli and other otaku bait. So in a way, this has actually exceeded most expectations by far. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if most of the crap in here hasn’t already been animated. Let’s give them a round of applause for affably failing.

Shounen Ace (Kadokawa Shoten)Series of Note:Keroro Gunsou, Deadman Wonderland, Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu, Sora no Otoshimono, Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu, Nichijou, Narue no Sekai, Mirai Nikki, Fate/Stay Night, Bio-Boosted Armor Guyver, Tokyo ESPWell, look at all those notable series that only half of you have heard of or give a shit about. It makes me very sad to put this in the crap section, because this magazine was my favorite shounen publication about four years ago. But lately it’s getting old. Mirai Nikki didn’t deliver like I wanted it to. Keroro Gunsou is getting less and less serious, relying more on otaku references, parodies and the like to muster up comedic relief that frankly isn’t producing laughs… Deadman Wonderland is just plain stupid. Narue no Sekai has lost most of its steam, even after its long hiatus. No more Grenadier for me to laugh at. Instead, they filled the magazine chock full of bullshit series like Fate/Stay Night and BakaTest, and before that Blood+. Seriously, I don’t even know why Haruhi is still fucking running. Well, this is sayonara, my good friend. We had our good times and our bad, but they will forever be the best of times.

Now that we’re out of that shithole, let’s jump into the best monthly publications Japan has to offer!